As a network, AgriProFocus is a neutral convener, bringing together agripreneurs, private sector companies, civil society organisations, knowledge institutes and governments together around specific questions, issues and opportunities. We organise ánd facilitate the place for members to meet and work, learn and influence together. Our diverse membership base and presence in both The Netherlands and in 13 countries in Africa and South-East Asia offers unique opportunities for cross-boundary exchange.

This online agribusiness platform with over 25000 registered agribusiness professionals facilitates easy access to relevant information and provides all our members with visibility and outreach within the network and beyond. The dedicated AgriProFocus staff is your navigator in the network, helping you find the right partners and the right information and build a strong culture of collaboration.

AgriProFocus Kenya Network Day 2017

You are invited! AgriProFocus Kenya Network Day 2017

This year, the Annual Network Day is scheduled for the Wednesday 15 November 2017 at Safari Park hotel in Nairobi. The theme this year is "Investing in Climate Smart Agriculture to enhance Food Security." This is a day for the members and partners of the network to jointly go beyond the discussions from last year's Network Day to unlock investment opportunities for climate smart agriculture. The key questions we shall be exploring are:

++ What successful CSA models exist and how can lessons, experiences and challenges be shared?

++ What investment opportunities exist for CSA and what is needed to unlock these opportunities?

++ What opportunities exist to integrate youth into CSA interventions?

Vlog #8: Woord & Daad: Making Agribusiness work for Development in Bénin and Burkina Faso

Eddie Krooneman, Policy Advisor and Projectleader Employable Youth in Ethiopia, tells us in about 3 minutes what Woord & Daad does and shares an example of their work in the cashew sector in Bénin and Burkina Faso

Meet the other Dutch member organisations and what they can do for you on THIS PAGE

Members Meet-Up the Netherlands

We need you to shape the AgriProFocus agenda for 2018!

We are excited to invite you to the Members Meet-Up where not only the Dutch AgriProFocus team will be present but also our Country Coordinators. We have previously discussed that we want to jointly set our agenda, and this is the time! Don’t miss this opportunity!

Agenda

+ Welcome by managing director Sander Mager

+ Introduction by Aaltje de Roos (DGIS)

+ Presentation by Ellen Mangnus (Utrecht University) on our mission ‘Making Agribusiness Work for Development’, followed by participatory member session to reflect on key issues and challenges underneath this mission.

+ Theme-oriented working groups with members on the 4 themes of AgriProFocus. Input for this session is the outcome of member consultations in the countries and the survey send to Dutch members (Dutch outcome) This session is to further zoom in on the 4 themes: What are the underlying challenges? What are the most bur

General Assembly of Agri BDS Network
Members

On Friday, 08th September 2017, the Agri BDS Network (https://agriprofocus.com/agri-bds-network)
held its General Assembly at Umubano Hotel to gather members'
ideas in making a setup which can enhance the marketing and increase their
visibility locally and internationally.

The objective of the workshop was to
commonly improve the orientation of the network and discussing the registration
of the Agri BDS Network.

During the workshop, the network
members discussed the progress in the registration of Agri BDS
Network in Rwanda
Development Board (RDB). The president of Agri BDS
Network, Laurent ULIMUBENSHI (https://agriprofocus.com/profile/5117)
has explained the whole registration process as well as the required documents
including the identity number of the network. He explained that Agri BDS
Network doesn’t have ID number to be used in the registration due to the
fact that it works as a social network, not as a company.

Bringing agricultural solutions to the farmers through Farmers' Field Days - Lessons from HortIMPACT business case 7

The Kenya Market-led Horticulture Programme (HortIMPACT) is
a Dutch funded programme focused on the development of fruit, vegetable, and
potato value chains. The programme capitalizes on opportunities in the Kenyan
horticulture sector while addressing some of the challenges that persist in the
sector. Through working with Dutch companies, the programme has provided
opportunities for Kenyan farmers and companies to build on the Dutch expertise
and knowledge through applying technologies and methods that support
horticulture sector development. The programme does this by taking a business
case approach. Companies (mainly Dutch and Kenyan) come up with at least 50% of
the budget, while SNV co-invests the rest. All the business cases are led by
companies that play an important role in supporting small and medium size
commercial farmers to develop their business. The companies ar

MY YOUTH IN AGRIBUSINESS CARAVAN EXPERIENCE

The Youth in Agribusiness Caravan is the most beautiful agricultural tour I have ever participated in. We were welcome everywhere. It was so easy and friendly for us to ask questions and shared our experience with the farmers. The tour was perfectly organized (interesting and appropriate “professional visits”, good hotels, good food apart from Baguma Restaurant in Mbarara!, nice touristic places like The Equator in Kayabwe, Kitagata hot springs, Nkugute crater lake, Kichwamba Rift valley and also Queen Elizabeth Park). I discovered a wonderful country, amazing landscapes from Mbarara to Fort portal. Every day was different, every day was surprising. I made wonderful friends in the caravan; Agaba Keneth, Phionah Kyomuhendo, Jimmy Ouni, Sharifah Najjuma, Creddy Lakot to name a few, all Agripreneurs from different regions of the country, then Brenda Namirembe, Joy Lwanga and Zurah from Action Aid Uganda and not forgetting Maik Voets and Adinda Lo

Jacob Olanya
Great Ronald, its good to see you learned alot from the Caravan, am looking forward to see your passion fruit farm grow.

1 year 2 months ago

Mugisha Richard
Waoo! Ronald, this is an amazing story! Its nice to read this inspiration message from you. I am inspired again by your memorable story. I can now confirm that learning took place. Please take action and make every day a caravan day in order to bring about sustainable change in self and your constituency. To those who missed this year's edition, next year for you. Just begin to prepare around same time but different route and perhaps different country. Its gonna be massive!! Yes, no success without a story. AgriProFocus gives you a story and you gain success.

1 year 2 months ago

Taremwa Joseph
Miggadde, thanks for the active participation in the entire caravan. I am astonishingly pleased that you were able to practically learn and as well as have meaningful fun.For the first time, I saw selfies being taken using a Kodak camera!!!Great day

1 year 2 months ago

NYAKATO MOREEN
feeling like it was just yesterday when we were together with you guys in the caravan.would like to inform you guys that Divine Organic Vegetable farm has formally changed to GREECO ORGANIC FARM (a registered entity now)

Youth in Agribusiness Community of Practice Kick-off 5 September at AgriProFocus Utrecht office

AgriProFocus, in collaboration with the Food & Business Knowledge Programme, hosted the first Community of Practice on Youth in Agribusiness. The objective of the CoP is to share recent work of members on Youth in Agribusiness, provide feedback on each others’ work, identify knowledge questions and ideas for joint action, find innovative solutions for urgent issues, and to get to know other members as well as inspiration for collaboration.

Members in the lead!

KIT presented last Tuesday the research results of a research they did for Plan International in El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil: Youth employment and entrepreneurship programs: critical factors for effective interventions.

During an interactive programme, Ingrid Flink and Gabriela Quiroga from KIT guided us through some critical questions with regard to youth employment and youth entrepreneurship programmes:

Organic
Certification Workshop for Horticulture Value Chain in Rwanda

On
Wednesday 30th August 2017, AgriProFocus Rwanda in collaboration
with Oxfam in Rwanda and National Co-operatives Confederation of Rwanda (NCCR)
organized a workshop “Organic
certification for Horticulture value Chain‘’ at Umubano Hotel, Kigali
Rwanda.

This
workshop’s objective was to discuss on the issues challenges and gaps which
limit the development of Horticulture cooperatives among which organic
certification is major and discuss possible solutions to address the identified
issues.

During
this workshop, there were 31 different horticulture value chain actors and
stakeholders. The participants came from Government Institutions (NAEB, RALIS,
RSB and RCA), NGOs and INGOs (Oxfam, INADES-Formation, and DUTERIMBERE), PSF
(Farmers and Companies), Horticulture Cooperatives federation including organic
farmers (ROAM) and cooperative union.

The
9th edition of the ‘’Agri-Finance & Market Linkages’’ event

For the 9th time,
AgriProFocus Rwanda organized the Agri-Finance & Market
Linkages event. During this year, the Agri-finance fair took place in
Muhanga district on 24-25th August, 2017.

Due
to the information gap on financial services and to offer a market
linkages opportunity in agriculture of Rwanda, AgriProFocus Rwanda
organized this fair to improve agribusiness
development by facilitating an easy access to financial services and business
linkages between the key stakeholders of the Agri-food sector in Rwanda.

The
two-days event brought together different farmers especially farmers from
the Southern Province of Rwanda, cooperatives, agribusiness companies,
financial service providers and development partners organizations operating
in Rwanda for better information sharing, dialogue and interaction and
connections between different stakeholders to address various key issues in
f

Enhancing Agribusiness Through
Networking

AgriProFocus
Zambia hosted the 2017 Regional
Agribusiness Platform (formally known as Agribusiness Finance Fair) on 24th
to 25th of August, 2017 in Chipata, eastern province. We would like
to thank the sponsors, exhibitors, Agro-dealers, farmers and the government for
making the event a great success.

The
platform was characterised with official opening by the Eastern Region
Permanent Secretary Mr. Chanda Kasolo then followed exhibitions, workshops
(Knowledge exchange) and lastly award giving ceremony.

Meet Twahirwa Dieudonne, an emerging young entrepreneur in agribusiness

One of biggest challenge the agriculture sector is facing, is the aging of farmers who re not able to cope with today's challenges. On the other side, we have an increasing number of unemployed young people. However, it seems all the young people who have ventured in agriculture are doing well. we have aproached Mr. Diego to share with us :

Who is Dieudonne?

I am Dieudone Twahirwa, nicknamed Diego. I am 29 years old and love agribusiness I currently specialize in chilli. I graduated from the University of Rwanda in 2012 in the faculty of Agriculture and I am now the Managing Director of Gashora Farm ltd in Bugesera District.

What motivated you to venture in chilli

I started growing tomatoes and watermelon on land equivalent to one tenth of a hectare with Rwf 130,000 worth of investment and earned Rwf1.3 million from the first harvest.

Though it was doing well, the biggest challenge was that the tomato produce

HIRWA Fabrice
I love your story Diego. From you I am going to try to start a small business of piggery farm but I need a support in terms of training in order to get a more skills about a piggery, so I want this because I am a student in University of Rwanda Nyagatare Campus in faculty of animal Production and we don't get a practical skills, then after That Festival I inspired to start a business but help me how I can get that practical knowledge before starting.

Kick Off! Community of Practice - Youth in Agribusiness

Many of us recognize the important role of young women and men in realizing a sustainable agri-food sector in the near future. We are also aware of the many challenges young people face as agripreneurs in the sector. Many stakeholders, including members of AgriProFocus, develop and implement projects and programmes in low and middle income countries for and with youth in order to find innovative solutions for these challenges and explore, pilot and upscale opportunities that contribute to the transformation of the agri-food sector. Collaboration and sharing of experiences are important to inspire, increase synergy, to improve and be more effective in tackling worldwide challenges in the agri-food sector.

WHAT?

The AgriProFocus network, in close collaboration with the F&BKP, facilitates a Community of Practice (CoP) for and with professional youth from members and stakeholders, with the aim to jointly contribute to innovative solutions for young people to become successful agripreneurs in the agri

Feed Supplement
Production made of Fish Fossils and Shell Powder

Extended Pitch at the
4th 2017 Business Drinks

On July 27,
AgriProFocus and Ethiopia Netherlands Trade for Agricultural Growth (ENTAG)
organized the fourth Business Drinks of 2017. These Business Drinks have been
organized since 2015 for the purpose of bringing together the agribusiness
community in Ethiopia to create an informal networking and an opportunity to
meet and greet among relevant stakeholders.
On this last event
over 50 participants attended and got the chance to meet with others and to listen
interesting pitches. In the first round we listened two pitches from Assegid T. Gedamu of HEKS-EPER and Ahmed Mukred of Gasco Trading PLC.

HEKS-EPER is a Swiss
based development organization, working in Ethiopia since 2003. Thematic areas
include food security/ food sovereignty, market systems, water development, and
pastoralist livelihoods development. Capacity development and resilient building
are two major str

Baca versi bahasa di bawah

Master educated young women back to village to start organic
farming

Apni Olivia Naibaho, 34 years old, quit job in capital city
to start organic farming. She founded Siantar Sehat in 2013 and now work with 6
other female farmer to produce organic vegetables and processed vegetables into
healthy snack. Two Months a go, Siantar Sehat has launched its apps to make consumer easy
to buy the healthy organic vegetables.

Apni Olivia Naibaho, a young female farmer from Pematang
Siantar, North Sumatera is one of our Young Agripreneurz Ambassador 2016 finalist and been honored as most dedicated participant. Before become a farmer, she is graduate from
master program in one of university in Jakarta and used to work in capital city
for years. During that time, whenever
she come home to Pematang Siantar, she looks at the way of farming that all the
farmers in her region done : using pesticide and chemical fertilizer massively.
This way of farming affects the products qual

“The Young Agripreneurz Ambassador is a competition and campaign organised by the Innovation and Learning Community Youth and Agriculture under the AgriProFocus Indonesia network. The goal of the campaign was to promote agri-entrepreneurship among youth and make agriculture more attractive as a source of income. The chosen ambassadors set up a campaign to show the young generation that agribusiness is cool and there are young farmer entrepreneurs who have been successful in developing their agribusiness, especially in Indonesia. The candidates who entered the competition were provided with a series of trainings and classes, including IT and business, value chain analysis, but also training in leadership and public speaking. We visited companies, a school, and even held a press conference with much media attention.

In June 2017, staff from Dutch embassies across Africa, Asia and the Netherlands visited Kenya for a learning journey. The journey was meant to jointly learn and reflect on the implementation of the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) policy of the EKN. Participants visited programs in four sectors: dairy, horticulture, potato, and edible oils.

The delegation met with Kenyan and international farmers, processing companies, expertise centers and NGOs. The embassy staff will implement the ideas and insights developed during this learning journey in their work at national level.

Read more in the comprehensive articles from the learning journey on this Embassy Special by the Food and Business Knowledge Platform.

Nicole Metz
Thanks for sharing Dorina! The learning journey outcomes are relevant for all AgriProFocus networks across Africa and Asia. As a facilitator of this learning journey, I really enjoyed the open sharing that happened during the field visits and reflection sessions. I highly recommend all of you to watch the video (only 10 minutes) and read the different articles. Also check the original link if you like to http://knowledge4food.net/learning-journey-kenya-2017/ or the link to the 'Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands' page on the Food & Business Knowledge Platform website: http://knowledge4food.net/partners/embassies-kingdom-netherlands/

1 year 3 months ago

Dorina PrechNicole Metz indeed thank you for your wonderful facilitation at this learning journey. I also absolutely enjoyed the open sharing of experiences especially from the other countries. That's why it's great that all the AgriProFocus networks get to see what transpired during the journey. We look forward to the continued dissemination of the outcomes.

"Scaling-up my agribusiness-Agripreneurs"

AgriProFocus network in
collaboration with partners is working on a youth platform “Scaling-up
my business”. The purpose of this platform is to provide a platform for
learning and business to business linkages that will foster the growth of
Youth-led agribusinesses and networks.

“Cooperation is critical to achieving success and impact”

Membership Agreement signed between Van Hall Larenstein and AgriProFocus

Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and AgriProFocus signed a Membership Agreement on 21st June 2017. Van Hall Larenstein’s Board Chairman Peter van Dongen and AgriProFocus’ Executive Director Sander Mager put their signatory and discussed the opportunities of further collaboration in a short meeting with staff of both organisations and a group of six students.

The Membership Agreement will strengthen the engagement and active participation of Van Hall Larenstein in the AgriProFocus network and improve the added value of the AgriProFocus network for Van Hall Larenstein, with a specific focus on sharing knowledge and connections in agribusiness for development. This will contribute to Van Hall Larenstein’s connections with the broader international agri-food development practitioners’ community as well as with policy makers; and in view